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Ravichandran Venkataraman

About:

Ravichandran “Ravi” Venkataraman is the Founder of Alive Consulting, specializing in leadership development and shared services consulting. He is a leader with a track record spanning 30+ years having worked in India, London and Bahrain. Leading large, remote, multicultural teams, developing and executing business relevant strategies and developing key talent are Ravi’s core competencies. He is also the Director &amp; Co-Founder of Floretz Academy which manages two Montessori Schools in Bangalore; and a Trustee in eVidyaloka, a non-profit social enterprise in to remote education for rural children in India.Previously, he was the Senior Vice President of HP’s Global Business Services managing a multi-function shared service covering finance and accounting, human resources, supply chain, order management (product and services), marketing and communications. He led a team of 18,000 people spread across 14 global centres and co-located in 58 countries. Ravi joined Hewlett Packard from ANZ Bank’s global back office where he was the Managing Director, responsible for managing a team of over 5,000 in technology and operations.He blogs at www.ravi4corners.blogspot.com and has a YouTube channel: Leadership in Real Life - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKEt8T9e4KKyeKjNB20tbag

From this author

As the drone flew over the factory in North Carolina and captured pictures and videos both inside and outside the factory, little did the company whose factory was being photographed realise that their practices would be questioned. Here is a factory that processes pig meat. The way the factory is designed is to optimise the number of pigs and the weight of these in order to get maximum production out of it. So, what is wrong with all this?

Our ancestors in India always told us that it was a sin to cross the oceans (and many in India do not cross oceans even today). There was something about globalisation that they just did not like and I have not been able to figure out what it is.

But, it is playing out now and I am getting a glimpse of their wisdom. When business started globalising and multinationals sold their goods/services in other countries, there was euphoria in the developed countries. However, over a period...

It was a rainy day in Goa, India and I had just got back to the hotel in the evening after meeting customers. As I walked through the corridor of the hotel I saw a lot of people from the Middle East sitting at the lounge and enjoying a drink as they chatted and gazed out over the Arabian Sea and the rains. I asked the lobby manager as to why so many people came in from the Middle East during monsoon times. He smiled and told me that his hotel marketed what they called “Monsoon Tourism...

A look at the picture below shows that design thinking is all about starting with the customer and ending with the customer. This really sounds like very old wine in a new bottle. But, please do remember: a lot of very old wine actually tastes really good. The offshoring/outsourcing industry has grown significantly. However, the industry...